Polarization based stereoscopic displays and auto-stereoscopic displays all suffer from resolution loss. Polarization based stereoscopic displays operate by modulating each row of the display in opposite polarization directions. When viewed using glasses incorporating passive polarizers only half of the screen content goes to each eye resulting in 50% resolution loss.
Auto stereoscopic displays work by spatially separating the light rays emanating from the display. For single-view auto stereoscopic displays, resolution loss is 50%. For multi-view auto stereoscopic display, the resolution loss increases as a function of the number of views provided. One type of auto stereoscopic display is parallax barrier based. Parallax barrier based displays employ an active switching barrier layer to alternately direct light to the right and left eyes on a per-frame basis.